


All Along The Watchtower

by SBG



Series: Little Problem [6]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Kid Fic, M/M, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 11:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1030971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SBG/pseuds/SBG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny demonstrates the joys and terrors of nakkie time to Steve. Steve hunkers down for the long haul.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Along The Watchtower

**Author's Note:**

> Chronologically, this would go after No Way Around...
> 
> I just needed a wee bit of wee!Danny to help get myself through a nasty head cold. Tis the season!

Since agreeing to head the governor’s task force and joining the ranks of civilian law, Steve had lost perps in crowds, but only for a few seconds at a time and only because the runners blended in very well with their surroundings. He had a certain, finely honed knack for always being able to right those momentary lapses and nab the criminals in good time. His record was fairly clean as far as collateral damage to passersby, too, if one didn’t balk at the sprained wrist that one guy sustained that one time, which was in no way his fault despite what certain New Jersey natives might have said. It never even made the papers, though he had never been exactly sure how. Anyway, Danny always balked, of course. And, of course, it was somewhat ironic whom he chased now and the anticipated amount of flack over it someday. Someday soon, with any luck.

“Someone sto … augh,” Steve said as he scrambled out of his office, jaw still stinging from the blow that had caught him by surprise. He moved quickly and shouted from the wide-open main office doors, to a gaping Kono, Lori and Chin, “Really, you guys? You just let him run out of here?” 

“Took us by surprise,” Chin shouted back from where he stood, stock still as if frozen to the damn smart table. “Nobody expected a nekkid jailbreak.”

“Yeah, or we’d have had our phones ready,” Kono called.

Steve waved a frustrated hand at his chuckling colleagues. He wondered again why he was the only one who didn’t find this situation amusing. As he dashed out of the Five-0 offices and sought his current perp, he thought that he couldn’t possibly lose this little monster in a crowd; there was just no way a nude toddler would not stick out like a sore thumb in the well-lit and definitely not bustling rotunda of the Ali‘iolani Hale. The problem was, he realized immediately, he had already lost the kid once today and should really, really have expected there to be absolutely no sign of the towheaded pain in his backside by the time he hit the open second-floor corridor. He scrubbed his hands down his face and then stared helplessly at the complete lack of Danny down below or scampering through the hall up here.

“Ho _brah_ , where’d he go so fast?” Kono asked.

“There’s no way he could disappear like this,” Lori said in monotone, like all emotion had been stunned right out of her.

Steve had told them after the tree-climbing fiasco that Danny was like some sort of ninja, or maybe a teeny-tiny supernatural creature possessing enormous amounts of magic, but they’d all looked at him with expressions of pity bordering on fondness. Like it was cute and perhaps a tad charming how he was so out of his element dealing with a toddler, or like he was exaggerating little Danny’s magnificent feats.

“Now do you believe me?”

HFD bringing out Tower 9 to come collect him and Danny from the top of a palm tree, all recorded by cell phones and broadcast on local news stations somehow hadn’t convinced them. That should have worked, if his own good word didn’t. Steve had reminded them that it was _Danny_ who made mountains out of molehills, not him, and that he was the boss and they had to respect his authority. Maybe now they’d get it. He felt no real satisfaction when Lori and Kono both nodded at him mutely, all aboard the belief train. 

“Look,” Steve said, “we have to find him before this gets out. I managed to avoid questions about him earlier, but we don’t need any more headlines about Hawai’i’s elite task force being bested by a two-year-old.”

When he took into account what he’d just said and how completely ridiculous it sounded, he could have laughed. Whatever he might have thought about the deeply rooted spirituality of the Hawai’an people before, now he couldn’t do anything but believe there was something to the otherworldly element. Danny would tell him that shit like this would never happen in New Jersey, and right now he’d love to hear that as well as any old thing Danny wanted to talk, rant or complain about. Steve had this horrible feeling that it was going to be far too long before he heard anything from the version of Danny he knew. 

“Yeah, and if we keep going public with the little guy, it’ll only be a matter of time before someone puts together that Danny’s suddenly not around with the rest of us,” Chin said as he joined them. He handed Steve a comm, followed suit with Kono and Lori. “Figured we’d split up.”

“Good call.” Steve jammed the earwig into his ear. “We treat this like any search, people. Kono, you’re on the main floor. Lori, coordinate with security to keep an eye on the exits. Chin, you’re with me covering this floor. No, scratch that – do a sweep of the exterior. He might already be outside. Kono, you join me upstairs when you clear this floor.”

“Come on, do you really think…” Kono stopped speaking when Steve glared at her. She affixed the comm pack to the back of her waistband and nodded. “Of course you do. Palm tree. Got it. _Keiki_ -sized Danny is probably on the roof already.”

Oh, man, he hadn’t even thought of that. Steve had to work hard at not making for the stairs at a dead run at the very idea. Chin placing a hand on his arm told him his expression reflected his panic.

“She was joking,” Chin murmured. “Realistically, there’s no way he can make it up there. He’s pretty small; I’ll bet he can’t reach a door handle.”

Maybe he’d believe that were true had Danny not already scaled a tree. All of a sudden Steve couldn’t help imagining the little boy dangling out a window, shimmying up the flagpole at the clock tower and too many other horrifying scenes to dwell on. He couldn’t think about losing Danny, either version of him. Instead, he focused on how embarrassed his Danny was going to be that the whole team had seen him in the altogether more than once, anyone watching the news at noon, six and eleven and now maybe people he could run into daily might get an up close and personal view as well. At least no one outside of Five-0 would know exactly who he was, but if he knew Kono – and he did – this was going to be fodder for a long time to come. He’d feel worse for Danny about the future teasing, if the kid version of him weren’t actively aging him by the second.

“Remember, we are dealing with a perpetrator that is wily, fast and deceptively strong. Proceed with extreme caution and haste,” Steve said, gazing sternly at each of them in turn, “but don’t spook him. He will not hesitate to punch you in the jaw with a decent right hook. He is not afraid to pee on you to make a point.”

He swore he heard Kono mutter something to the effect that those things were reserved specifically for him, that tiny Danny was an _angel_. He kept moving for the closest stairwell without turning around to comment, choosing to ignore the remark and the accompanying pang of hurt that came with knowing this Danny didn’t like him at all. Yet. If this whole reversion to childhood thing was an extended problem, then he was going to go out of his way to make the boy come to love him just the way his contrary adult self did.

Steve hoped to catch Danny scrambling into a nearby office or bathroom. He didn’t and he was disappointed but not shocked. Nothing with little Danny was easy, and all it really proved was that Danny had gone left to Steve’s right. He reasoned Danny would probably have headed out of the building. It seemed more likely. Out was easier. Out was _away_. He frowned, but kept going. His team was capable. If Danny were outside or on the first floor, they’d find him. Chances were if they did, recapture would go more smoothly – Danny didn’t seem intent on fleeing from them with the same fervor as he did Steve. That would never not make his heart feel like it shriveled three sizes.

Still, he spun around and headed back to the offices closer to the stairs. He entered the office suite at the top of the grand staircase, startling its occupants. Steve flashed his badge and wordlessly searched every square inch of the offices, then moved to the next, and the next. Every passing, unsuccessful minute had his concern mounting. Kono reported no luck downstairs, Lori said no one had spotted Danny leaving the building (not that it meant much), and Chin…

“Uh, Steve.” 

Chin’s voice fed into his ear just as he hit the Supreme Court administrative offices. Steve was prepared to search every nook and cranny even if it meant peeking up a judge’s robes. He had his hand on the door knob when he halted to take in Chin’s very pregnant pause. Distantly, over the low din of the foot traffic in the rotunda, he thought he heard distant but sharp cries of alarm.

“Chin,” he said. “What is it?”

“I don’t believe…” Chin trailed off, sounding dazed.

Steve’s shriveled heart plummeted to his feet. He knew Chin’s tone; it epitomized how he’d felt since Danny had poofed into his pint-sized self.

“You need to get to the clock tower now,” Chin said. “I guess Kono’s joke was not all that funny. I have no idea how…”

Shit. Steve knew how. Miniature Danny was as magic as the magic that had turned him miniature. His head spun, but again he couldn’t let the panic win. He’d thought the palm tree was bad. No way would a tiny person survive a fall from the clock tower. The back of his throat tasted acidic. 

“Kono, you’re with me, get up here. Chin, you and Lori try to keep the crowd calm and the amateur filmography from happening,” Steve said, hoping like hell he didn’t sound as frazzled to others as he did to himself. “Like I said before, we don’t need every story on the news tonight to be Danny.”

It was always this way; the most crucial missions made him question his command presence. He barely heard the three affirmative responses that might have reassured him as he pounded up the stairs and down the corridor toward the tower access. Steve couldn’t fault Chin’s confusion. This was not an easy route to take for anyone who didn’t already know it, yet Danny had found his way, and in record time. 

Danny seemed to defy logic no matter what package he was in, Steve thought with a grim smile, suddenly filled with as much fondness as fear. He wanted Danny around for a long time, defying logic all the while. 

He reached the access door at last and found it propped open. Irritation spiked through him. An open door to a kid like Danny might as well be an engraved invitation. He would have to have a talk with maintenance, but for now pushed the door open wider and vaulted the stairs three at a time, pushing his shaky legs to hold him. The whole time, images of naked little Danny tumbling off of the tower flashed in his head. He had no idea how parents did this every day for eighteen years, no, for life; all the emotional turmoil was too much. His scenario wasn’t the same. Danny was above and beyond rambunctious compared to most kids, surely. Danny also wasn’t his child. Danny was his everything, though, he realized with sudden clarity. He had to make sure Danny knew that. He was making it a priority, when this was all over.

This wasn’t going to be over with Danny falling to his death, still so small, vulnerable and full of fire. The only way it was going to be over, like that, was with both of them old and grumpy – in Danny’s case _grumpier_. It wasn’t a realistic viewpoint to have considering their professions, but it was Steve’s secret dream, one he didn’t want to mention for fear of jinxing it.

Steve heard Kono enter the tower just as he let himself onto the platform above the clock. He knew what he was going to see or had some variation of it in his head, but the sight of Danny perched on the ledge of the parapet wall had him stumble slightly. Either the movement or the noise startled Danny, and Steve watched in horror as the boy pitched forward.

“Danny,” he shouted. He leaped with his arms outstretched and … missed Danny’s flailing arm by a hair’s breadth. “Danny, no!”

He didn’t know, later, when his nerves had settled to their normal, steady state, exactly how he managed to stretch just that extra bit more. Determination. Sheer will.

Love.

Steve hauled Danny back to the right side of the wall and away from danger. He tucked Danny’s naked body against him, vaguely heard distant applause. He peered over the parapet down to the ground below, saw a small crowd had amassed and at its head, Chin and Lori. Their relief showed in slumped shoulders, then he heard them talking over each other in his ear bud, which he promptly tore out. He didn’t care what they were saying, all he cared about was the boy now squirming wholeheartedly against him.

“No, no,” Danny said, voice tremulous and without most of the anger that had colored his interaction with Steve so far. It was the only indication that maybe, just maybe, he was scared.

“What did you think you were doing, huh, Danno? You’re not going to be rid of me so fast,” Steve said into Danny’s hair. He ignored a well-placed kick to his solar plexus and elbow to his throat, convinced that along with regular magic, Danny was also a contortionist. 

“Lemme go.”

He watched the crowd below start to dissipate, under the direction of Chin, Lori and a handful of security guards. He held Danny tightly, until the boy stopped struggling quite so hard and also stopped shaking. For the first time, Steve sensed they were approaching some kind of truce.

Then Danny reared his head back, knocked Steve so hard on the chin his teeth clattered. 

“I should have expected that, I suppose.” He shifted, holding Danny as best he could under his left arm. He eyed the parapet wall and shook his head. “You used to be a real daredevil, didn’t you? I want to know what happened to that part of you along the way, so you’re stuck with me, I’m afraid. I’m in this till the very end, Danny, and I need you to know that. I'm going to keep repeating myself until you get it.”

He stood with Danny, silent and watching for the activity down below to return to normal. After a few minutes, Danny relaxed against him, tiny puffs of warm breath against his neck hinted that maybe he’d fallen asleep. Steve supposed the level of acrobatic exercise it had taken for someone so small to come so far might have an exhausting effect. 

The quiet sound of a throat clearing reminded him that he’d ordered Kono to follow him up. Steve turned, catching her smiling softly at him, her eyes understanding.

“You guys okay?”

“We’re all right, Kono,” Steve said. “I think we’re gonna be just fine.”

Danny suddenly sprang to life, clearly not asleep as he yanked and twisted Steve’s ear.

“Ow, hey! What was that for?”

Kono laughed and said, “Bet you can’t wait for Danny to get back.”

Steve nodded at what was a fair-sized understatement, shifting Danny to his right side so he could rub at his sore earlobe.

“I _am_ Danny,” Danny said, like Kono was the biggest idiot on the planet.


End file.
